Miss Congeniality/Miss Congeniality 2 [DVD] [Canadian]

MISS CONGENIALITY: When a notorious criminal mastermind known only as the Citizen threatens to terrorize the Miss United States Pageant, the FBI scours their ranks to find a female agent capable of winning the contest and capturing the killer before it's too late. Special Agent Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) may be the most physically beautiful woman in the Bureau, but her tomboyish lack of feminine grace jeopardizes the plan and spells disaster. Forced to turn to the once-proud beauty pageant consultant Victor Melling (Michael Caine), Agent Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt) tries to accomplish the impossible goal of transforming Hart from an unrefined rogue to a model candidate of elegance, poise, and style, with the irresistible power to win the pageant and simultaneously catch the killer. MISS CONGENIALITY combines the hilarious physical comedy and girl-next-door charm of Sandra Bullock with Michael Caine's trademark British wit and impotent outrage, adding up to a devastating orgy of comedy, glamour, and catastrophe.

MISS CONGENIALITY 2: Picking up three months after the events of the first film, this inspired sequel opens with agent Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) back in action against a team of lady bank robbers, only to have her cover blown by her newfound fame. In an effort to capitalize on the publicity--and as a result of being dumped by her boyfriend from the first film--Gracie lets herself be made into the feel-good ambassador of the FBI, helped by the staggeringly hip Joel (Dietrich Bader) and his stylists. The change is not good for the brash Ms. Hart, however, who is soon appearing on morning television and dispensing fashion tips instead of girl-power platitudes. Of course this phase doesn't last long; some goons out in Las Vegas kidnap Mrs. Congeniality (Heather Burns) and host Stan Fields (William Shatner), prompting Hart, with her intensely angry bodyguard, Sam Fuller (Regina King), to strap on her guns and get back in the game. Her method of operation includes beating up Dolly Parton, defying a sexist FBI bigwig (Treat Williams), and faking cramps. At one point she disguises herself as an old Jewish woman in a wheelchair, and later she's a Las Vegas showgirl doing "Proud Mary" at a drag club.

Bullock's good-natured performance recalls the old-school comedic talents of Bob Hope or Barbara Stanwyck; she effortlessly makes Gracie Hart a unique and complex woman who is capable, sarcastic, intuitive, impressionable, and a secretly lonely tomboy. Also a plus is the refreshing lack of a male romantic interest as Hart and Fuller don't need some handsome guy to ride to their rescue and they aren't going to let sexual discrimination stop them from getting the job done.